In recent years, there has been an exponential growth in the implementation and use of network computing systems such as cloud computing platforms and data centers, for example, to support various types of network applications and services. These network computing systems may be comprised of tens, hundreds, or thousands or more of interdependent network entities including logical, physical and/or virtual entities. Because of the complexity and potential vast size of such network computing systems, the ability to identify and manage the constituent components of such systems is not trivial for various reasons. For example, the infrastructure of a given network computing system can dynamically change on a regular basis, wherein different network entities are physically added and removed, and/or logically or virtually instantiated, for example. As such, it is difficult to track what components are executing in the network computing system at any given time, and where such components are located in the system. Moreover, a network computing system with a dynamically changing topology makes it problematic to discover and track the behavior of the network entities within the system to ensure that the network entities are behaving appropriately in terms of performance, security, and other expected or desired behaviors.